Akebono 515

Akebono is an amazing place to eat. We always love the service and food. Staff is so great and always helpful and willing to go above and beyond which is so appreciated. Nick is often our waiter and he is so personable! We’ve started letting staff pick our third sushi roll (because we have to get surf and turf) and they are so respectful of our preferences and ask if there’s anything we don’t like! It’s a fun way to make dining exciting and getting to try something new! I love that it can be a "fancy" place for date nights or a chill dinner with amazing food! The Mochi is a MUST try it’s so delicious!

Let's start off with the staff, excellent staff. Friendly, funny, easy to talk to, always with a smile. Customer service on point. They definitely help sell the experience. The food is great. I had the miso and salad which comes standard, both decent. It is nice you get both versus choosing one. I ordered the Sake and Unagi nigiri, both were great, not too much rice and they both had great flavor. The kalbi (I forgot a picture of this) was delicious, tender, and a pretty good amount, was a bit weird on top of kimchi as the kimchi was hot and I prefer it cold. The bartender let me know you can request it over rice. The mussels were tasty and stuffed well, a bit of spice in the mayo (not terrible, but I didn't expect it), you get 4 half shells in the order. Ambience was nice, lots of people in. Chatter was at the usual levels, so not super loud. Definitely worth a visit. PS I wanted Ramen originally but it was beef broth. No shoyu, tonkotsu, miso broth options just an FYI.

Stopped by on a road trip from Ontario Canada to Midwest. Ordered agedashi tofu, caterpillar roll, dragon roll, rainbow roll, unagi maki. Also a California roll and a chicken donburi. Both of ours came with a miso soup and a salad. The agedashi tofu skin was sort of gelatinous, even where it wasn't in contact with the sauce (see image). This applied to all tofu pieces. The broth was tasty. The cucumber in the unagi maki hand roll was limp, the seaweed was damp and hard to chew through, and the unagi was soft, but not in the sort of melt in your mouth way, maybe more related to quality or thawing process. The unagi sauce was tasty, including in the other rolls.

We went last night for the first time and had an amazing experience. The soup and salad were served with amazing timing as separate courses. I asked for recommendations because I love a variety of rolls but enjoy knowing what the staff like to showcase. I received the Cupid and Dragon rolls and they were both delicious! My partner got the chicken sandwich and was very happy. We got the fried cheesecake for desserts and that was also very tasty! Our server was friendly and helpful. I really appreciate when plates don't gather on the table and staff did a great job at keeping the table cleared. Thank you for an amazing experience. We will be back.

Walked in for my online order, and a doordasher took my order! I was working so the time crunch definitely existed! They got it out for me in 5 minutes and even got me extra soup & salad for the stress. To customer service, to the food it was great! The atmosphere as well was very warm, great welcome in for my first time. Definitely coming back and referring all my guests at the hotel to come

I came here while visiting from Michigan and was tired of bar foods. The quality of the food is phenomenal. We saw the manager interacting with customers in such a positive manner. Our server was the bartender with pony tail and he was absolutely one of the best servers I’ve ever had!! He checked on us at the perfect moments and just the right amount of times. The food proportions are perfect for the price. And the fried snickers are crazy good!! The next time we are in Des Moines we are definitely coming back here!

Great service and helpful staff. Was there for party of happy hour which had good prices. Will not hesitate to go back.